Various information processing apparatuses have been conventionally proposed to improve operability by adopting, for example, a graphic user interface (GUI). Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-84741/1995 (Tokukaihei 7-84741), as an example, discloses a technology for graphically structuring the visual interface on a user interface in a data processing system. This conventional technology structures a visual interface on a data processing system by displaying a plurality of graphic user items on the user interface of a data processing system.
Another example is found in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 1-234890/1989 (Tokukaihei 1-234890) disclosing a graphic display method capable of illustrating objects in three dimensions by displaying three kinds of views, namely the front view, plan view and side view, on a single screen. According to the method, complex graphics can be drawn flexibly in two or more display regions on a single screen without newly defining display regions. To be more specific, a new display region does not overlap an old display region to hide the graphic in the old display region or block the sight when complex graphics are to be drawn in separate display regions.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-56504/1995 (Tokukaihei 7-56504), as an example, discloses a facility guide map in a multi-storied building. The facility guide map displays, on a single screen, a solid view showing the present location and the destination, a plan view showing the present floor, and a plan view showing the floor on which the destination can be found, and the information displayed includes a way leading from the present location to the destination and landmarks that can be spotted along the way. The facility guide map offers as much information as the operator would need, in a visually easy-to-understand format.
The conventional technologies described above all present information on a single screen, not being directed to a more naturally looking GUI: for example, a three-dimensional GUI such that the operator finds himself/herself in a virtual space.
Some applications having emerged recently on networks such as the Internet realize a GUI that makes the operator feel as if he/she were in the virtual space and that changes the displayed image in response to movement of the operator in the virtual space. However, such applications still provide information only on a single screen, failing to produce three-dimensional graphics with natural appearance.
Some information processing apparatuses have been conventionally suggested for realizing a three-dimensional GUI by displaying images on two screens. An example of such information processing apparatuses exhibits, for example, a front view of an object on one of two display screens and, for example, a plan view of that object on the other display screen. Although such a conventional information processing apparatus displays images on two screens, alteration in the information displayed on one of the screens does not automatically lead to corresponding alteration in the information displayed on the the screen. Therefore, the apparatuses using two screens still have the same problem of lacking in capability to produce three-dimensional graphics with a natural appearance as do the apparatuses using a single screen.